What We Hate on the Web

I'm sure every one of us has things we just hate about the Web,
whether it's that flashing $115 shopping spree ad, those X10
pop-unders, small white Times text on a busy background, or those "Best
Viewed With" badges. So I launched a poll on May 17 and asked you to
tell me what you thought of 34 annoying things on the Web.

A total of 735 people participated in our survey, and each question
had between 704 and 735 votes. Votes

Don't mind it

Don't like it

Really dislike it

Hate it

Avoid sites with it

We have ranked the sites based on how many don't mind a feature, how
many dislike it somewhat (a 2 or 3 vote), how many strongly dislike it
(voting 4 or 5), and how many avoid it. We also include the total
number of votes cast as well as the number of votes at each level as
well as some percentage breakdowns and the occasional comment.

When the "avoid" rating is below 5%, we don't mention it.

Keep in mind that these results are subjective and self-reported.
Much as we might like to avoid sites that have certain annoying
features, sometimes there's no alternative and we only wish we could
avoid them.

What You Mostly Don't Mind

Links that are colored but not underlined721 votes
(368/138/125/76/14). 51.0% don't mind at all, 35.6% dislike it
somewhat, and 12.5% strongly dislike it.

Sites that look just like Slashdot but aren't704 votes
(306/148/118/82/50). 43.5% don't mind the clones, 37.8% dislike it
somewhat, 18.7% strongly dislike sites that merely clone Slashdot, and
7.1% see it as enough reason to stay away.

White text on a black background732 votes
(308/161/136/85/42). 42.1% don't mind, 40.6% don't like it, and 17.3%
strongly dislike it, including 5.7% who who avoid returning (white on
black can be especially hard to read on an LCD)

What Bothers Some, Not Others

Lack of a search engine727 votes (252/246/140/71/18).
34.7% don't care one way or the other, although few would avoid
returning to a site without a search engine. 53.1% dislike the absence
of a site search, and 12.2% strongly dislike it.

What You Don't Care For

Articles with unidentified authors729 votes
(164/245/173/111/36). 22.5% don't care, 57.3% dislike it somewhat, and
20.2% hate it when a site doesn't identify its writers.

No way to email webmaster or author724 votes
(161/223/150/149/41). 22.2% don't mind, 51.5% dislike it somewhat, and
26.2% strongly dislike not being able to email the author or webmaster,
and 5.7% avoid such sites.

So many ads that you have to scroll down for any real
content730 votes (20/75/147/236/252). 2.7% don't mind it,
97.3% do. 30.4% dislike it somewhat, and 66.8% strongly dislike it.
34.5% say they avoid returning to such sites.

Sites that require a paid subscription726 votes
(56/86/86/81/417). 7.7% don't mind, 92.3% do. 23.7% dislike it
somewhat, 68.6% dislike is strongly, and a whopping 57.4% say they
don't want to go back to a site that requires a paid subscription.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986,
sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and
has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.